DOCSLIB.ORG

Europe: the Third Way/Die Neue Mitte

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Europe: the Third Way/Die Neue Mitte FRIEDRICH EBERT FOUNDATION SOUTH AFRICA OFFICE 34 Bompas Road, Dunkeld West, Johannesburg P.O.Box 412664, Craighall 2024 Phone: (**27)-11-447-7455/2232 Fax: (**27)-11-788-5840 e-mail: [email protected] WORKING DOCUMENTS No. 2 Europe: The Third Way/Die Neue Mitte by Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder June 1998 Introduction Social democrats are in government in almost all the countries of the Union. Social democracy has found new acceptance – but only because, while retaining its traditional values, it has begun in a credible way to renew its ideas and modernise its programmes. It has also found new acceptance because it stands not only for social justice but also for economic dynamism and the unleashing of creativity and innovation. The trademark of this approach is the New Centre in Germany and the Third Way in the United Kingdom. Other social democrats choose other terms that suit their own national cultures. But though the language and the institutions may differ, the motivation is everywhere the same. Most people have long since abandoned the world view represented by the dogmas of left and right. Social democrats must be able to speak to those people. Fairness and social justice, liberty and equality of opportunity, solidarity and responsibility to others – these values are timeless. Social democracy will never sacrifice them. To make these values relevant to today’s world requires realistic and forward-looking policies capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Modernisation is about adapting to conditions that have objectively changed, and not reacting to polls. Similarly, we need to apply our politics within a new economic framework, modernised for today, where government does all it can to support enterprise but never believes it is a substitute for enterprise. The essential function of markets must be complemented and improved by political action, not hampered by it. We support a market economy, not a market society. We share a common destiny within the European Union. We face the same challenges – to promote employment and prosperity, to offer every individual the opportunity to fulfil their unique potential, to combat social exclusion and poverty, to reconcile material progress with environmental sustainability and our responsibility to future generations, to tackle common problems that threaten the cohesion of society such as crime and drugs, and to make Europe a more effective force for good in the world. We need to strengthen our policies by benchmarking our experiences in Britain and Germany, but also with like-minded counterparts in Europe and the rest of the world. We must learn from each other and measure our own performance against best practice and experience in other countries. With this appeal, we invite other European social democratic governments who share our modernising aims to join us in this enterprise. I. Learning from experience Although both parties can be proud of our historic achievements, today we must develop realistic and feasible answers to new challenges confronting our societies and economies. This requires adherence to our values but also a willingness to change our old approaches and traditional policy instruments. In the past: 2 - The promotion of social justice was sometimes confused with the imposition of equality of outcome. The result was a neglect of the importance of rewarding effort and responsibility, and the association of social democracy with conformity and mediocrity rather than the celebration of creativity, diversity and excellence. Work was burdened with ever higher costs. - The means of achieving social justice became identified with ever higher levels of public spending regardless of what they achieved or the impact of the taxes required to fund it on competitiveness, employment and living standards. Decent public services are a vital concern for social democrats, but social conscience cannot be measured by the level of public expenditure. The real test for society is how effectively this expenditure is used and how much it enables people to help themselves. - The belief that the state should address damaging market failures all too often led to a disproportionate expansion of the government’s reach and the bureaucracy that went with it. The balance between the individual and the collective was distorted. Values that are important to citizens, such as personal achievement and success, entrepreneurial spirit, individual responsibility and community spirit, were too often subordinated to universal social safeguards. - Too often rights were elevated above responsibilities, but the responsibility of the individual to his or her family, neighbourhood and society cannot be offloaded on to the state. lf the concept of mutual obligation is forgotten, this results in a decline in community spirit, lack of responsibility towards neighbours, rising crime and vandalism, and a legal system that cannot cope. - The ability of national governments to fine-tune the economy in order to secure growth and jobs has been exaggerated. The importance of individual and business enterprise to the creation of wealth has been undervalued. The weaknesses of markets have been overstated and their strengths underestimated. II. New programmes for changed realities Ideas of what is ‘left-wing’ should never become an ideological straitjacket. The politics of the New Centre and Third Way is about addressing the concerns of people who live and cope with societies undergoing rapid change – both winners and losers. In this newly emerging world people want politicians who approach issues without ideological preconceptions and who, applying their values and principles, search for practical solutions to their problems through honest well-constructed and pragmatic policies. Voters who in their daily lives have to display initiative and adaptability in the face of economic and social change expect the same from their governments and their politicians. - In a world of ever more rapid globalisation and scientific changes we need to create the conditions in which existing businesses can prosper and adapt, and new businesses can be set up and grow. 3 - New technologies radically change the nature of work and internationalise the organisation of production. With one hand they de-skill and make some businesses obsolete, with another they create new business and vocational opportunities. The most important task of modernisation is to invest in human capital: to make the individual and businesses fit for the knowledge-based economy of the future. - Having the same job for life is a thing of the past. Social democrats must accommodate the growing demands for flexibility – and at the same time maintain minimum social standards, help families to cope with change and open up fresh opportunities for those who are unable to keep pace. - We face an increasing challenge in reconciling environmental responsibility towards future generations with material progress for society at large. We must marry environmental responsibility with a modern market-based approach. In environmental protection, the most modern technologies consume fewer resources, open up new markets and create new jobs. - Public expenditure as a proportion of national income has more or less reached the limits of acceptability. Constraints on ‘tax and spend’ force radical modernisation of the public sector and reform of public services to achieve better value for money. The public sector must actually serve the citizen: we do not hesitate to promote the concepts of efficiency, competition and high performance. - Social security systems need to adapt to changes in life expectancy, family structures and the role of women. Social democrats need to find ways of combating the ever more pressing problems of crime, social disintegration and drug abuse. We need to take the lead in shaping a society with equal rights for women and men. - Crime is a vital political issue for modern social democrats. We consider safety on the street to be a civil right. A policy to make cities worth living in fosters community spirit, creates new jobs and makes residential areas safer. - Poverty remains a central concern, especially among families with children. We need specific measures for those who are most threatened by marginalisation and social exclusion. This also requires a modern approach to government: - The state should not row, but steer: not so much control, as challenge. Solutions to problems must be joined up. - Within the public sector bureaucracy at all levels must be reduced, performance targets and objectives formulated, the quality of public services rigorously monitored, and bad performance rooted out. - Modern social democrats solve problems where they can best be solved. Some problems can now only be tackled at European level: others, such as the recent financial crises, require increased international co-operation. But, as a general principle, power should be devolved to the lowest possible level. 4 For the new politics to succeed, it must promote a go-ahead mentality and a new entrepreneurial spirit at all levels of society. That requires: - a competent and well-trained workforce eager and ready to take on new responsibilities - a social security system that opens up new opportunities and encourages initiative, creativity and readiness to take on new challenges - a positive climate for entrepreneurial independence and initiative. Small businesses must become easier to set up and better able to survive - we want a society which celebrates successful
Load more

Recommended publications
  • On Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Social Enterprise
    A Third Way Out?— On Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Social Enterprise Chik Ho Ning Cultural Management, Chung Chi College Social enterprise is a rising form of business which strives for common good as an ultimate purpose. The Social Enterprise Alliance in Hong Kong stresses three characteristics of social enterprises: addressing social needs and serving the common good, using commercial activity as a strong revenue driver as compared to relying on donations, and holding the common good as the primary purpose (“The Case for Social Enterprise Alliance”). By another definition, provided by the Home Affairs Department of Hong Kong, a social enterprise strives for social goods in the area of providing service for the community while creating employment and training opportunities for the socially vulnerable. It is also important that social enterprises reinvest their earned profits for the social objectives, instead of distributing them to shareholders. (“What is Social Enterprise.”) One shall wonder, how does this relate to the existing business models and ideologies? In the following, I shall draw attention to ideas of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, and, in my wild imagination, their possible comments to social enterprises. Examples of social enterprises in Hong Kong shall be 26 與人文對話 In Dialogue with Humanity quoted. The essay will end with a discussion on social enterprises as “the third way”. On Adam Smith and Social Enterprise Smith is honoured as the Father of Economy, and his ideology drives the operation of a capitalistic society. In The Wealth of Nations, he emphasises the activities in a free market, driven by self-interest of individuals and led by an “invisible hand”.
    [Show full text]
  • The Third Way and the Governance of the Social in Britain Jérôme Tournadre
    The Third Way and the governance of the social in Britain Jérôme Tournadre To cite this version: Jérôme Tournadre. The Third Way and the governance of the social in Britain. A city of one’s own, Ashgate, pp.201-212, 2008. halshs-00649541 HAL Id: halshs-00649541 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00649541 Submitted on 9 Dec 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. CHAPTER TWELVE The ‘Third Way’ and the Governance of the Social in Britain Jérôme Tournadre-Plancq Regardless of the ‘world of Welfare’ in which it functions - to use the term coined by Gøsta Esping-Andersen (Esping-Andersen 1990) - the State has, during a large part of the twentieth century, come to play an essential role in the handling of welfare in liberal democracies. This does not mean that its role amounts to exercising a monopoly. Providing a counterweight to the market in the social-democratic ‘compromise’, the Welfare State often emerges, in the political reflection of the majority of the post-war centre-left, as the most reliable guarantor for the common good. The Social (Donzelot 1984) is then considered as the best way to reinforce this idea.
    [Show full text]
  • If Not Left-Libertarianism, Then What?
    COSMOS + TAXIS If Not Left-Libertarianism, then What? A Fourth Way out of the Dilemma Facing Libertarianism LAURENT DOBUZINSKIS Department of Political Science Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.sfu.ca/politics/faculty/full-time/laurent_dobuzinskis.html Bio-Sketch: Laurent Dobuzinskis’ research is focused on the history of economic and political thought, with special emphasis on French political economy, the philosophy of the social sciences, and public policy analysis. Abstract: Can the theories and approaches that fall under the more or less overlapping labels “classical liberalism” or “libertarianism” be saved from themselves? By adhering too dogmatically to their principles, libertarians may have painted themselves into a corner. They have generally failed to generate broad political or even intellectual support. Some of the reasons for this isolation include their reluctance to recognize the multiplicity of ways order emerges in different contexts and, more 31 significantly, their unshakable faith in the virtues of free markets renders them somewhat blind to economic inequalities; their strict construction of property rights and profound distrust of state institutions leave them unable to recommend public policies that could alleviate such problems. The doctrine advanced by “left-libertarians” and market socialists address these substantive weaknesses in ways that are examined in detail in this paper. But I argue that these “third way” movements do not stand any better chance than libertari- + TAXIS COSMOS anism tout court to become a viable and powerful political force. The deeply paradoxical character of their ideas would make it very difficult for any party or leader to gain political traction by building an election platform on them.
    [Show full text]
  • The Third Way at the Crossroads
    THOMAS MEYER The Third Way at the Crossroads he term Third Way in its most recent use was be a meaningful and highly informative endeavour Tcoined in 1992 by a group of policy consultants to renarrate the whole history of socialism as a to Bill Clinton and taken over by Tony Blair and sequence of ever renewed steps towards actualised his intellectual aids with new emphasis half a forms of syntheses between liberalism and social- decade later in order to brand a new centre-left ism prompted either by changes in social, eco- approach to what they consider the inevitable new nomic and political reality itself or the perception challenges of economic globalisation. It is by its of them by the mainstream socialists – and the authors understood as the opening move for a new constant rejection of such a synthesis by dogmatic wave of revisionism which aims at a new synthesis socialists and communists. between traditional social democracy and libera- Revisionist socialism as contrary to the dogma- lism in some of the key fields of social reform such tic version of marxism, from its very outset, always as governance, welfare state, education, political has seen itself as an open process of learning from culture and job creation in a new economy. The reality, from the results of its own endeavours in very brand-name and the new direction of political the different fields of society, but abiding without thinking for which it stands have proved highly compromise by the basic values of freedom, justice controversial in the short time since they have and solidarity as the unchangeable guidelines for entered the political arena.
    [Show full text]
  • The Third Way and Beyond
    HALE MAKE-UP 23/10/03 8:21 am Page 186 10 Will Leggett Criticism and the future of the Third Way Introduction It is ironic that the surest indication of the durability of the Third Way is the con- tinuing attention paid to it by its critics. This collection has provided a flavour of the range of such criticism from different disciplinary, analytical and political perspectives. But what general conclusions can be drawn from contributions such as these as to the prospects for a successful critique of the Third Way and a reconstructed project for the (Centre) Left? This concluding chapter reviews existing critical strategies towards the Third Way, as illustrated by contributions to this volume. It divides the various criticisms from what are broadly the neo- Marxist and the social democratic Left into those which dismiss the Third Way as a ‘smokescreen’, with no substance in itself, and those which recognise that if it is to be critically engaged with the Third Way has to be taken seriously. This overview reveals that, at present, the various critical approaches expose significant weaknesses, tensions and dangers in the Third Way project. However, critics representing both these perspectives are often too quick to dismiss outright some of the claims made by the Third Way as to the changing social and politi- cal terrain on which the ‘actually existing’ Centre-Left finds itself. It is suggested here that a productive critique of the Third Way should do three related things. First, it needs to take the Third Way seriously. To dismiss the Third Way as ‘mere’ spin, or simply a smokescreen for a more traditional agenda, is to misconceive it: the Third Way is a distinctive political project that draws on different political heritages in novel ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Neoliberalism, the Third Way and Social Work Draft
    Social Work & Society ▪▪▪ I. Ferguson: Neoliberalism, the Third Way and Social Work Neoliberalism, the Third Way and Social Work: the UK Experience. Iain Ferguson, University of Stirling Summary For most of the past two decades, the notion that there is no alternative to the market as a basis for organising society has constituted a kind of global ‘common sense’, accepted not only by the neo-liberal Right but also by social democratic thinkers and politicians, in the form of ‘the Third Way’. This paper will critically assess the central claims of neoliberalism in the light of experience in the UK and internationally, evaluate the ways in which Third Way policies are shaping social work in the UK, and in the final section, begin to explore some of the ways in which the anti-capitalist movement which has emerged in recent years might contribute to the development of a new, engaged social work, based on social justice. Keywords neoliberalism, market, Third Way, anti-capitalism, social justice. Introduction The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci once defined ‘common sense’ as ‘the day to day ideology of the bourgeoisie’ (cited in Forgas 1990). By this Gramsci was referring to the process by which the ideas and assumptions of the dominant groups within society become part of the everyday, taken-for-granted consciousness of millions of people. For much of the 1990s, neo-liberal ideas, and in particular the assumption that there is ‘no alternative to the market’, have formed a core element of the common sense of many people throughout the world, including many of those who involved in social work and social care.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of the 'Third Way'
    PARTY POLITICS VOL 8. No.5 pp. 507–524 Copyright © 2002 SAGE Publications London Thousand Oaks New Delhi THE POLITICS OF THE ‘THIRD WAY’ The Transformation of Social Democracy in Denmark and The Netherlands Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Kees van Kersbergen ABSTRACT The development of European Social Democracy has once more attracted significant scholarly attention. This time, the debate is centred around the ‘third way’ as the catchphrase for the transformation of European Social Democracy. Based on the experience of the Danish and Dutch Social Democrats, two questions are raised in this article, namely what has caused the renewal of Social Democracy and what explains different sequences of change in different countries? The answer to the first question is that the transformation is driven by the search for a new formula for combining social justice and effective economic governance after the failure of the Keynesian formula in the 1970s and 1980s. This, and not so much changes in the preferences of the electorate in a liberal and libertarian direction, is driving the transformation. The answer to the second question is that differences in the strategic situation of the Social Democratic parties in terms of office-seeking and holding on to power explain different sequences. KEY WORDS Ⅲ Denmark party change Social Democracy The Netherlands Ⅲ ‘third way’ Introduction In 2000, Social Democratic parties were in office in most West European countries, which sparked off a new wave of academic study on Social Democracy (e.g. Glyn, 2001; see Powell (2001) for an overview). The debate has centred around the concept of the ‘third way’ as theoretically elabor- ated by Giddens (1998, 2000, 2001) and politically advanced, for instance, in the Blair–Schröder paper (1999).
    [Show full text]
  • The European Paradox
    AGENCY/PHOTOGRAPHER The European Paradox Matt Browne, John Halpin, and Ruy Teixeira October 2009 WWW.AMERICANPROGRESS.ORG The European Paradox Matt Browne, John Halpin, and Ruy Teixeira October 2009 As we gather in Madrid at the Global Progress Conference to discuss the future of the trans-Atlantic progressive move- ment, it is worth assessing the current status of progressive governance in light of emerging electoral, demographic, and ideological trends. Progressives in both the United States and Europe are currently in a state of foreboding about their respective positions—those in the United States primarily over the current position of progressive policy ideas around health care, energy, and economic reform, and those in Europe, primarily over fractured electoral politics, an aging and shrinking working-class base and diminishing returns for social democratic and labor parties. This paper aims to address the status anxiety on both sides of the Atlantic by examining the longer-term strengths and weaknesses of progressivism in Europe and America and by offering ideas about how we might solve our mutual chal- lenges in terms of vision, campaigning, and party modernization. —Matt Browne, John Halpin, and Ruy Teixeira Introduction Looking across Europe and the United States, progressives have two strengths going for them. The first is that modernizing demographic forces are shifting the political terrain in their favor. Consider these trends: • The rise of a progressive younger generation • The increase in immigrant/minority populations • The continuing rise in educational levels • The growth of the professional class • The increasing social weight of single and alternative households and growing religious diversity and secularism.
    [Show full text]
  • Justificatory Fables of Ordoliberalism: Laissez-Faire and the “Third Way”
    CRS0010.1177/0896920519832638Critical SociologyDale 832638research-article2019 SYMPOSIUM: Neo-Liberalism and Ordoliberalism: One or Two Critiques? Critical Sociology 2019, Vol. 45(7-8) 1047 –1060 Justificatory Fables of © The Author(s) 2019 Ordoliberalism: Laissez-faire Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions and the “Third Way” https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920519832638DOI: 10.1177/0896920519832638 journals.sagepub.com/home/crs Gareth Dale Brunel University, UK Abstract This article critically examines two conceptualisations of ordoliberalism. In one, it is defined, together with neoliberalism, against 19th-century liberalism (in its social liberal and laissez-faire variants). This reading was common among ordoliberals themselves, and early neoliberals such as Friedrich von Hayek, as well as among critics, notably Michel Foucault. In another, ordoliberalism is contrasted to neoliberalism, with the latter presumed to be a species of laissez-faire economics. This reading is commonly accompanied by the supposition that ordoliberalism represents a “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism, or between laissez-faire liberalism and state planning. The main body of this contribution presents a critical analysis of both positions, by way of analysis of ordoliberal texts and a history of the discourse of laissez-faire. Keywords Austrian School, laissez-faire, neoliberalism, ordoliberalism, Third Way Introduction Despite having lost status and definition as a current of economic thought since its heyday in the 1950s, the ordoliberal spirit has retained its presence within the German establishment and receives ritual obeisance still today, with ordoliberal incantations serving to signpost an assortment of lib- eral-conservative positions and mentalities (Hien and Joerges, 2018).1 Its fortress has long been the Bundesbank.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reception of John Stuart Mill in France Concerning Mill’S on Representative Government
    The Reception of John Stuart Mill in France Concerning Mill’s On Representative Government Vincent GUILLIN and Djamel SOUAFA How did the thought of John Stuart Mill cross the English Channel? Vincent Guillin and Djamel Souafa analyze the reception of Considerations on Representative Government in Second Empire France and show why it is interesting to reconsider Mill’s theory of democratic government today. Nearly twenty years ago, in a preface to a new edition of On Liberty, Pierre Bouretz lamented the “unfathomable ignorance” of John Stuart Mill’s work in France.1 Some day there really ought to be a serious historical and philosophical study of the various reasons for the virtually total absence of references to Mill in France until quite recently2—an absence that is all the more intriguing because, as Bouretz rightly points out, Mill’s work was known and discussed by French philosophers, psychologists, economists, sociologists, and political scientists at least until the 1920s, but all this has been “forgotten.”3 It should be noted, however, that the situation has improved considerably since the 1990s: although Mill’s work is still not central to contemporary debates in France, some of his writing have once again become accessible to a broad audience. The most recent development in this area is the publication of Patrick Savidan’s elegant and precise translation of Mill’s Considerations on Representative Government,4 which has 1 John Stuart Mill, De la liberté, trans. C. Dupont-White, revised by L. Lenglet, preface by Pierre Bouretz, Paris, Gallimard, 1990, p. 13. 2 A notable exception is Ruwen Ogien, who frequently refers to Mill’s moral liberalism in his work, especially L’Éthique aujourd’hui.
    [Show full text]
  • The Third Way: a Guide to Implementing Innovation Schools
    How School Districts Can Create Autonomous, Accountable Schools To Enhance Student Learning The Third Way: A Guide to Implementing Innovation Schools Tressa Pankovits David Osborne Acknowledgments Tressa Pankovits and David Osborne would like to thank the dozens of people who provided their knowledge and insight for this guide and model legislation. Many of them are quoted in the guide’s text. © Progressive Policy Institute, 2020 The Reinventing America’s Schools Project at the Progressive Policy Institute is particularly grateful to The City Fund and the Progressive Policy Institute Walton Family Foundation for providing the funding that made this 1200 New Hampshire Ave NW, publication possible. Suite 575 Washington, DC 20036 In advance, we thank those leaders and policymakers invested in the www.progressivepolicy.org future of our public schools who read and digest this “Third Way” guide with open minds and hearts. America’s students need you Cover photo credit: The Mind Trust now more than ever. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 7 Executive Summary 12 THE THIRD WAY: A Guide to Implementing Innovation Schools 18 Autonomous Schools on The Rise 21 The Advantages of Innovation Schools and Zones 29 Key Factors for the Effective Launch of an Innovation Schools Model 33 Stepso t Effective Implementation 49 Other Lessons Learned 61 Do’s and Don’ts 66 Winning the Political Battle 69 Conclusion 76 MODEL LEGISLATION 77 Endnotes 99 About the Authors 107 6 7 PREFACE: AN URGENT NEED If we learn anything from two massive traumas that roiled society in 2020, it is that the racial inequities underpinning both crises require sweeping, systemic change.
    [Show full text]
  • Varieties of Progressivism in America
    Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Progressive hberkp fm Mp_11 rev3 page xi introduction Peter Berkowitz it has become customary in the United States to refer to the left of center in American politics as “liberal.” This, however, is mislead- ing because a liberal in the large sense, as Judith Shklar stressed, seeks, in the first place, “to secure the political conditions that are necessary for the exercise of personal freedom”1—a description that also fits many conservatives in America. In fact, what has reliably distinguished Left from Right in American politics for the past fifty years is a sense of priorities and an opinion about government’s purpose. To be on the left has meant to give priority to the end of promoting progress— that is, expanding the domain of individual liberty, particularly in regard to privacy and personal autonomy, and developing a more equal, inclusive society. To be on the left has also meant believing that government has the means and the moral obligation to accom- plish the task. In their agreement over ends or goals, or of what progress consists, progressives in America today differ from their counterparts on the 1. Judith Shklar, “The Liberalism of Fear,” in Nancy L. Rosenblum, ed., Lib- eralism and the Moral Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 21. Hoover Press : Berkowitz/Progressive hberkp fm Mp_12 rev4 page xii xii peter berkowitz right. Although conservatives in America—classical, libertarian, and neoconservative—make a priority of conserving goods that they believe are in danger of being lost or debased, they are nevertheless divided over which moral and political goods are most urgently in need of conservation.
    [Show full text]